Dominator. A true icon of the Kings Dominion skyline. In 2023, Dominator celebrates 15 years of thrilling Kings Dominion guests with one of the tallest roller coaster loops in the world, a massive cobra roll, and two corkscrews. But did you know that Dominator is not actually 15 years old, but 23? And that Dominator once had another home where it broke records when it opened?

The ride originally opened as Batman: Knight Flight in 2000 at Worlds of Adventure in Aurora, Ohio. Billed as the “first floorless coaster in the Midwest”, the ride first opened on May 5, 2000. A “floorless” roller coaster is a specialty designed by coaster manufacturer B&M where riders board a specially designed "floorless" train with nothing but air between the rider's feet and the steel rails below. Dominator has other sister coasters in the Cedar Fair chain such as Rougarou at Cedar Point, and Patriot at California’s Great America. The ride had some harsh competition right out of the gate, as in the year 2000 two other parks in the same state as Ohio also opened massive roller coasters: Millennium Force at Cedar Point, and Son of Beast at Kings Island. While not a groundbreaking ride or the first of its kind, it did open with the world record of being the world’s longest floorless roller coaster, and also the record for the world’s tallest loop (the record is now 160 ft.).

Some fast facts about the ride

• 157 ft. tall lift hill
• 148 ft. tall 57-degree drop 
• 135 ft. tall loop
• 4,210 ft. long
• Top speed of 65 mph
• 5 inversions
• 3.8 G forces
• 3 trains of 8 cars, 32 riders per train
• World’s longest floorless coaster
• Ride duration of two minutes, six seconds
• 1600 riders per hour
• Designed by Ing.-Büro Stengel GmbH and built by Bolliger and Mabillard

To help share some insight about the ride back in its early days, I asked my friend Jes Sellers, Director of Food & Beverage at one of our sister parks, Worlds of Fun in Kansas City. He worked at Geauga Lake as a ride operator for the ride among other positions, and set him up for a career with Cedar Fair Entertainment Company.

“Batman (Dominator) was a tremendously important ride in Geauga Lake’s storied history, as well as my (eventual) career in Amusement parks. When it was installed, it marked the park’s transition from a small family-oriented amusement park, to a regional destination theme park. It was the biggest coaster in the park’s history and to this day holds the record for the world’s longest floorless coaster. For me, it combined my two loves as a kid- roller coasters & the caped crusader!

The ride opened on Friday, May 5th 2000. I was a guest this day and ran as fast as I could when the gates opened. I was on the first public train out of the station. 2 years later, I’d be operating this ride as an employee. I later went on to supervise this coaster, as well as other rides at the park, and got to work for great people like Bridgette Bywater, who was our Director of Operations in 2004.

Running the ride was truly an operator’s dream- super reliable, efficient, and thrilling! Any time you have a ride designed by Bolliger & Mabillard, you know you are getting the Rolls Royce of coasters. It also had the unique feature of being built over a swamp, which meant any loose articles that were lost while riding were gone for good. I did occasionally volunteer to take the row boat (the Bat boat, if you will) out to clean under the ride before we opened for guests. The ride was truly massive in scale, towering over the rest of the park. One of the great perks of the job was getting climb to the top of the lift hill during our operator training sessions and admiring the view.

While I was sad to see Geauga Lake close in 2007, I am glad that Dominator continues to thrill guests at Kings Dominion, 15 years later. Like the coaster, many of the people who worked at Geauga Lake relocated to other parks and are still proudly working to make people happy.”

The attraction (along with the park) was bought by Cedar Fair and was renamed Dominator in 2004. The park's other coasters found homes at other Cedar Fair parks, like Dorney Park's Possessed, Kings Island's former Firehawk, and Michigan's Adventure's Thunderhawk. Did you also know that our Americana ferris wheel came from Geauga Lake, also? In 2007, the decision was made to move the massive roller coaster to Kings Dominion for the 2008 season. The ride received a brand-new paint job as the track color changed from yellow to orange (except the loop). Dominator had its first day of operation at Kings Dominion on May 24, 2008, and has been showing guests ever since why Dom is the bomb dot com.